更新日：2010年7月5日

Tachihara Masaaki

The novelist Tachihara Masaaki was born in the  present Republic of Korea in 1926; his real name was Kim Yun Kyu. After the death of his father, a Zen monk at Tentsan Hteiji Temple in Korea, his mother moved to Yokosuka, Japan, in 1935 and Tachihara joined her there two years later. From around the age of 15, he spent much of his time reading Japanese novels and came to have a high regard for Kawabata Yasunari.

In 1945 Tachihara was admitted to the Law Department of Waseda University and in the following year began to audit courses in the Japanese Literature Department. During this time his first novel, "Bakushu" (Autumn Wheat), no longer extant, won a competition sponsored by the Bungei Kenkyukai, a coterie run by Tanizaki Seiji. It was soon after this that he decided to become a novelist in earnest.

Tachihara was strongly attracted to medieval Japanese culture, particularly the Noh theater, ceramics, and traditional gardens. "Fushi Kaden," a treatise by the Noh master Zeami (1363-1443) is said to have been Tachihara’s guide to what a writer should be. ["Fushi Kaden" (Transmission of the Flower of Acting Style) is THE style book for Noh players, and deals with the discipline required in Noh performance and the philosophical theory of Noh drama.]

In 1958, Tachihara published "Tanin no Jiyu" (Other people’s freedom) in Gunzo, a monthly literary magazine founded in 1946. More novels followed, among them "Takigi Noh" and "Tsurugi-ga-Saki"; and "Shiroi Keshi" (White poppy) won him the Naoki Prize in 1966. His other works include "Fuyu no Tabi" (Winter journey), "Natsu no Hikari" (Summer light), "Kinuta" (Fulling block), and "Fuyu no Katami-ni" (Winter legacy). Tachihara drew a distinction between pure literature and popular literature, and gained a wide range of admirers. He died in 1980 at the age of 54.

His association with Kamakura began in 1950 when he moved to Omachi. After brief periods in Komachi, Ogigayatsu and elsewhere, he lived in Kajiwara from 1970 until his death.